2006: A woman who was born a man but was legally declared female following gender reassignment surgery files an application for marriage (to a man) with the Marriage Registrar. The Marriage Registrar refuses to issue the marriage banns and so she files an application asking the Court to order the issuing of the banns...

12th February 2007: The Civil Court, presided by Mr Justice Gino Camilleri, delivers a historic judgement. The Court orders the Director of Public Registry to issue the marriage banns for the woman, after noting that the union between her - who had been recognised as a woman on her birth certificate - and her male partner did not contravene any provision of the Marriage Act.

28th February 2007: The Director of Public Registry, in his capacity as Registrar of Marriages, files an application, also in the Civil Court, requesting reversal of the court decree permitting the marriage banns to be issued.

May 2008: The Court, presided by Mr Justice Joseph R Micallef, upholds the requests of the Marriage Registrar and declares that the change in the woman's birth certificate, allowing a change of name and gender, was only intended to protect the right to privacy and to avoid embarrassment. The Court also rules that the marriage of the woman in question to a man was in breach of the Marriage Act and revokes the 12th February 2007 ruling saying it was based on an "unrealistic premise" as the parties were not of the opposite sex.

In delivering this judgement, the Court goes against the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (Christine Goodwin vs. UK). Furthermore, it expressly states that a post-op transexual cannot get married to anyone, and in doing so clear violates Article 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to marry, to which Malta is signatory.

There is a strong reaction to this decision...

27th May 2008: L-Orizzont is the first newspaper to report the decision...

31st May 2008: The decision is reported in The Times...

1st June 2008: The Malta Gay Rights Movement issues a Press Release, which is also reported in The Times... 

1st June 2008: The Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia dedicates her entire column to the case: "You can't marry if you have a sex change"...

4th June 2008: Joanne Cassar herself tells The Times, "How can you call me a transsexual or a man? I always felt I was a woman. I am a woman"...